Renewable power needs at least 1 deus ex machina.
Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 09:42AM Wind farms are often idled when there is plenty of wind because they are much easier and quicker to turn off and on than fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, according to Jennifer Dillon. Add to that the fact, as this sailor well knows, that winds may suddenly shut off and it's quite understandable that power dealers prefer coal and nuclear for base load requirements. Dillon says the answer is a "smart grid," and she provides a link to DOE work on designing a smart grid.
I don't see how a smart grid shortens the start-up or shut-down time for coal-fired or nuclear power plants. What would potentially make wind power reliable enough for base loading is a way to store and quickly withdraw wind-generated electricity, e.g., in the form of hydrogen. Maybe "renewable portfolio standards" could force more use of renewables despite their cost and inconvenience to power dealers. It seems weaning ourselves from coal is going to be a lot more complicated than building wind (and solar) farms, a lot more expensive than generating facility project costs, and may depend on storage and other technologies that don't exist yet. Imposing a charge on CO2 emissions doesn't solve any of those problems either. Who's got answers?
Reader Comments (2)
The Western Governor's Conference is pushing geothermal and their report said that deep drilling in the west (inevitably on federal land) could furnish up to 10% of the electrical needs in the US. What do we know about this?
Christine,
Geothermal has the virtue of being suitable for 24/7 base load service, but I know nothing about the sizes or locations of the resources or the particular engineering and environmental problems associated with local conditions. Geothermal comes in many varieties of temperature differential, water and mineral content, disposal options, corrosion potential, etc. I'll forward this to my friend, former Minerals Management Service maven, and current geothermal resource developer to see if he'll comment.